Tributes pour in for Muammar Gaddafi who has died suddenly at the age of 69.

Many world leaders described him as the life and soul of international politics over the past 30 years.

Several of the more dubious ones said he was great at sticking his head over the parapet while they got up to far worse things quietly at home. Hugo Chavez of Peru said ‘I speak for many of my socialist brothers when I say my death squads were able to act with impunity because the Americans were so busy going after the colonel'. Former president of Panama Manuel Noriega said ‘Those were great days, Momo (as I called him) would make some idle threat against the US and while their backs were turned I’d land a C130 full of cocaine in Miami.

Tony Blair described him as a true gentleman ‘I could ring him up and say we have a scandel brewing, and he’d then rattle his sabre diverting the public’s gaze. He was always on hand with a funny story and some cheap black market oil. One year he sent some SAM missiles over for Cherie and I to have fireworks with the kids, I’ll miss him greatly’.

Rupert Murdoch said it was an honour to have listened into his voicemails.

Gaddafi leaves a plastic surgeon and a couple of sons with a taste for cocaine, hookers and gaudy London townhouses.

The Libyan people enjoyed brief freedom after ousting the Colonel before succumbing to a hostile takeover by the Halliburton Corporation last month.